Voter fraud committed by illegal immigrants who actually cast election ballots in one Texas county is more widespread than originally thought and federal authorities have launched investigations into neighboring municipalities.

A few weeks ago election officials in the south central Texas county of Bexar admitted that hundreds of illegal immigrants registered to vote and subsequently cast ballots, canceling out the votes of United States citizens. Now federal authorities are, not only investigating the fraud in Bexar, but also in nearby Harris, Tarrant and El Paso counties.

It turns out that many of the illegal immigrants voted in more than a dozen local, state and federal elections since 2001. This has evidently struck the interest of the Department of Homeland Security because the violators probably filed false United States citizenship claims.

The integrity of the U.S. voting system has been compromised many times in the past with documented incidents of illegal immigrants and non citizens casting ballots. The Federation for American Immigration Reform has tracked numerous instances when non citizens voted in major elections in various states, including California and Florida.

The respected national group says that, although it’s a federal crime for non U.S. citizen to vote in any election – federal or state – there is no evidence of prosecution of the aliens for their action. Under the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, federal authorities can deport an alien who falsely claims to be a citizen in order to vote.

The truth is, however, that the country’s election boards have few controls to prevent illegal immigrants from voting or stop other kinds of voter fraud. This is precisely why many states, including Texas, have pushed for legislation requiring voters to show a valid identification before voting. The laws have met strong opposition from Democrats nationwide who say it would keep minorities and poor people from voting.

In fact, several liberal courts and judges across the country have sided with “minority rights” groups in striking down state voter ID laws created precisely to prevent this kind of fraud. Rulings against the bills have come in Ohio, Georgia, Missouri and Arizona.

Incredibly enough, Mexico – the native country of many of the fraudulent U.S. voters–has a better and more efficient voter registration system than the United States. It requires every registered voter to have an official card with a photograph, fingerprint and holographic image to prevent counterfeiting. Additionally, poll workers have access to a book containing the picture of every registered voter in the precinct.

The irony is that U.S.-based Hispanic rights groups have vigorously fought voter ID laws nationwide, claiming that they unfairly burden Latinos and are therefore discriminatory. One American who lives legally in Mexico doubts that photo IDs are inherently discriminatory against Hispanics since they work in Mexico where almost everybody is Hispanic.

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